Gasta continues to see growth and convergence in the search and search marketing sectors

This is a really interesting Snippet from the NMA Daily Alert

Credit Article :Comment - Cooper on search

Gasta continues to see growth and convergence in the search and search marketing sectors as the article below concludes.

The fight to be the number one UK search specialist is frantic, with all players - not just Latitude and The Search Works - claiming top spot. Meaning making the headlines is increasingly important.

Over the Christmas period the sector was left thinking about Latitude's ambiguous deal - one that is as similarly blurry as the BigMouthMedia/Global Media deal a year before - but the start of the year saw TradeDoubler's announcement once again make IMW front of mind.

So, the frantic race continues, and it won't stop with Latitude and IMW. A year of consolidation in 2007 saw deals involving companies such as Spannerworks, Green Cathedral and 24/7 Real Media, all of which now have extra cash to fuel their race.

Interestingly, that only leaves a handful of search-specific agencies still playing the courting game - or not, as they insist.

Of those, arguably Greenlight is the most high-profile. Despite the fact that CEO Warren Cowan is adamant the agency's not for sale, key wins and good work for clients including HMV, Handbag and Monarch Airlines as well as expanding UK and US offices surely makes them an attractive prospect.

And why shouldn't they sell/merge/whatever? Search is still the fastest growing digital sector, with the trade press very much obsessed with Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft - yes, IMW, at £56m, went for less than anticipated - but there are still plenty of investors out there with very deep pockets.